Sometimes locked away in the darkest corners of our homes are uncovered doorways to the past. Longtime Brookhaven resident Josie Hightower found one such doorway recently while searching through some of her mother’s old belongings.

Hightower found a program for a musicale hosted by Alexander High School Band on April 3, 1942. The simple four-page program spins multiple stories that offer insight into the history of Brookhaven and its black residents.

Hightower said her mother most likely had the program kept away because she would raise money for such programs for the school by selling plates of food and organizing fish fries and barbecues, which all took place in the community.

“A lot of black parents helped fund the school system during that time,” Hightower said.

Other support for the all-black high school came from local businesses, both black and white. On the musicale program that Hightower uncovered, she pointed out 11 black-owned businesses that have congratulatory ads placed throughout the program.

Those businesses were C.L. Benson’s Repair Shop, Royal Blue Barber Shop, Wall Street Barber Shop, Universal Life Insurance Co., Cotton’s Cafe, Johnson’s Funeral Service, Dr. and Mrs. R. L. Redmond, Mrs. Jessye Lott and Miss Louise Lott, Fred Smith’s Grocery, Thadison Shoe Shop and Victor’s Cafe. Hightower said that Victor Thadison of Victor’s Cafe was the father of the men who did shoe repairs at Thadison Shoe Shop.

“Those guys had the best shoe shop in town,” Hightower said upon reading Thadison Shoe Shop. She said the business that was located next door to The Daily Leader had customers from all around, white and black.

“They were great at what they did. Of course, we have to be great at what we do,” she said about black people in the workforce seeking to gain recognition.

She told more stories about businesses in the city during the time, sharing how there were two separate lines – divided into race – at Purity Ice Cream, which she said had the best ice cream.

Hightower said not many black people at the time worked in white-owned business, and if they did it was usually as janitors or in the kitchen.

When asked about what happened to many of the black-owned businesses that were born out of such a racial climate, she said “folks just passed away and passed on.”

Hightower said the memories brought by this program of the people and the businesses that once were would delight many of the people in the city like it did her.

The stories surrounding this musicale, this town, and its people are stories that are interconnected and everlasting. All it takes is finding something old and full of history and the stories can come back to life.